The Third Chance to Live
by Chisora.Kito
Summary: Each time you were betrayed and left to face death, you were given another chance at life. Would life be meaningless and end in suffering again? Is there anyone who can break this spell of your disastrous fate?  Kakashi x OC
1. Prologue

(A/N) Hello! Welcome to my first fanfiction, and Kakashi x OC at that! Please comment and give feedback, because it really motivates me and lets me know there are people who read my story or want to help me improve or even like my story! I WILL read and respond to comments! Even if it's just a one line comment or anonymous, you guys really help! Critical comments are also welcome! (Just don't be rude. ^^) Enjoy!

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><p><em>A great shinobi always triumphs over the weak. To be a great shinobi, one must be a master of all jutsu.<em> That was what I was taught, and I had believed it for those long years. Too many times he had reminded me that I was on my way to greatness as my power increased with each new jutsu I obtained and each opponent I defeated. He had told me that passing on his nindo to me made his life meaningful. He said I was his reason to live. I believed him, hung on to his every word with trust. I did not want to disappoint him. And therefore, he became my reason to live.

_A smart shinobi is never caught in another's tricks. _This he also taught me. I had thought that this general rule was so obvious. Indeed, I had not fallen into an enemy's genjutsu or trap most of the time. Even when I was careless, I was able to use it to my advantage and turn it against my opponent.

No. I was not a smart shinobi. I thought I was able to see through genjutsu. Of course, he had given me rigorous training and I had learned to dispel genjutsu well.

But I had lived those long years in the ultimate genjutsu. He had manipulated me to no end. I had only noticed at the last second. Any later and I would have been dead. Or forever trapped in his subconscious.

I doubt any victim of his infamous Fushi Tensei no Jutsu is in any condition to tell me how being possessed feels. All I know is that it is worse than being dead. I had heard from Kabuto that the soul of each target lingers on together in his mind, neither alive nor dead. What a horrible way to exist, an existence without purpose.

Is that what I am now? A meaningless breathing, pulsing shell? Slumped against this tree, I was at the stage between life and death. I felt the life seeping out of me as blood. This was the second reason I was not a smart shinobi.

Even though I had escaped from Otogakure months ago, I was well aware that I was in no mental condition to pick a fight, especially with the man my former sensei had lost a hand to, but I was in a crazed state. Since I had lost my purpose to live, I had to prove to myself of my existence. I had to know of my own strength and if I could still follow my nindo.

What was my nindo? Was what he taught me a lie too? I did not know anymore. My vision was blurring. It was then that I gave up everything that I had lived for.

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><p>(Note)<p>

_Fushi Tensei no Jutsu_: Living Corpse Reincarnation Technique or Immortality Technique

_-kun_: Japanese honorific used (in this case) by a female when addressing a male that she is emotionally attached to or has known for a long period of time

_Otogakure_: Hidden Sound Village located in the Rice Field Country, which borders the Fire Country


	2. It All Started with a Shoe

(A/N) If you've read the Prologue, I'm so glad you're back! How do you think of my first fanfic so far? Please comment again if you'd like! :D

I'm a stickler for being accurate with the Naruto series, and I just noticed that my plot line has some inaccuracies with the Naruto timeline. Therefore, I have edited my chapters so that "twelve long years" is now just "those long years." Having a definite amount of time was limiting me too much and causing problems for my plot line. We'll see how it goes, but I thought I'd just give you readers a heads up if you're a fanatic like me and noticed this error when you were eating cereal this morning. ^^

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><p><strong>It All Started with a Shoe<strong>

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><p>I clutched the stitch in my side. My breath was coming out in irregular rasps as if I was being constricted. It was a too familiar feeling, since I had been working with snakes for over half of my life.<p>

I tilted my head to the sky, which was blurred among the thick summer foliage; my unfocused vision made everything seem like it was swaying as if wind could distort light. It was nauseating.

Would some kind of salvation come from this? Salvation through life would be meaningless. Fate had given me a second chance to live, but it only led to suffering. Salvation through death would rid me of this pain.

I raised my hand toward the sunlight streaming through the leaves like I was beckoning for a higher being (if one actually existed) to comply with my request. Perhaps I should have cast my hand to the fiery depths below for a more appropriate service. I groaned from the pain in my shoulder. I could bear with it, as long as I could be saved...

"Over there! I heard it!" Oh gods, you torment me now with this obnoxious exclamation?

As I lowered my head, a kunai whizzed past my ear, cutting into my shoulder at the same time. I winced and let my arm drop uselessly, my hand resting palm up on the grass. So that voice wasn't that of a higher being but that of a shinobi. A loud one.

"Naruto!" another voice shrieked. This time, it was female. "Don't just go attacking things all over the place! It's dangerous! And plus, the mission's already over so there's no danger."

The first voice whined. "Ah, but Sakura-chan..."

I blocked out their bickering voices. The leaves drifting down upon me were swimming in my head and now was not a good time to be sick, especially with (poorly-trained) shinobi detecting my presence.

My head snapped up, senses alert. The slight crunching of leaves was unmistakable and getting louder. Someone was headed my way but I couldn't feel his presence at all. How skilled a ninja was he? He definitely was different from the two arguing juveniles. In fact, I felt his level to be too great a distance above the others.

I had to do something! Anything! I started to reach for my weapon pouch but my injuries prevented my arms from reaching that far back. _Kuso_.

A glint caught my eye. The kunai that nicked my shoulder had landed point down into the soft earth an easy distance away. I made to grasp it, but my fingers only flailed through thin air before slicing themselves on the kunai.

_KUSO!_

I grabbed frantically, trying to hold onto a looped handle that my eyes could not focus on. My hand only met grass and grit and...shoe?

I stayed with my back against the bark wondering how the species known as "shoe" came to inhabit a forest like this. I also thought about how silly a person becomes when they reach the brink of consciousness.

My eyes made their staggering way from the shoe, up a leg, and over a torso. They rested on the blur of an eye, the even blurrier blue fabric that obscured his face, and a mass of silver hair waving with the wind.

My body turned to lead, but before I collapsed at his feet, I took one last glance. With the sunlight shining on his back, he looked like an angel. My savior.

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><p>(Note)<br>_kuso_: sh*t


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